Anna Elisabeth Westerlund (1907-1995) was for many
years the most talked about psychic people and helped to clarify a number of
disappearance cases. In magazines and newspapers, she was in the years from
1968 to 1995 as talked about as "Snåsa Man" is today. Researcher Bente
Gullveig Elves, who knew her well and worked with her for over 20 years, has
written a book about Westerlund ...

Anna Elisabeth and Bente Alver Gullveig inspected
the Isdalen during May Britt case.

Photo: Trygve Hillestad, BergensAvisen

As the youngest in a family flock of seven, grew up
on Anna Elisabeth Husoy in Nordland. She felt early on that she was
different from other children.

The first time she experienced having psychic
abilities, was when she saw the child dead grandmother Anna on the
neighbouring farm. She was terrified when she woke in the night and saw that
Anna was in shroud next to the bed. Gradually visions bothering her. She
could also feel the pain of others on the body. When she told about the
events, she felt rejected and ridiculed.

Anna Elisabeth's father went bankrupt when she was
17 years old and the whole family travelled to Narvik. Here she made a
living as a seamstress, and also practiced a bit like fortune teller. In
1930 she travelled to Oslo to take trade education and the examination she
had always dreamed of. Later she was employed at the National Grain
Corporation, and remained there until she retired in 1962.

Impressed as
psychic

Eventually, Anna Elisabeth well known for its
capabilities and received many kind inquiries. It could be from people who
had lost wedding ring or a necklace, which would be predicted on the love
and the future, or in despair asked for help finding a loved one missing
person. She also received many inquiries about the disease and social
problems.

A young and very beautiful Anna Elisabeth Westerlund
Photo: AEW archive

As psychic doubt Anna Elisabeth most by looking into
the future and the past and finding missing persons. Police and rescue teams
used her often. Where they had to give up, to Anna Elisabeth "see" and find
missing and deceased.

As a rule, sent her to the predictions, some more
surprising than others: Anna Elisabeth "as" a high-ranking Norwegian civil
servant would be taken for spying. Some months later, Arne Treholt arrested.
Wideroe accident in Torghatten she described very detailed. She also
predicted Princess Diana's death and the murder of Olof Palme.

The first meeting

- Anna Elisabeth Westerlund was a gifted and
knowledgeable man, says Bente Gullveig Elves, professor of folklore at the
University of Bergen, where she engaged in teaching and research. In 1971,
when she was working on a research project on psychics, she came in contact
with Anna Elisabeth. Bente was then 30 years old and had completed a
master's degree work in 15 - and 1600s witch persecutions. Through this
work, she had met the psychic just in the right protocols. Now was the time
to meet them in the flesh.

It was with anticipation and excitement Bente
contacted Anna Elisabeth, who lived in a small apartment in Green Street in
Oslo. She recalls that the apartment was crowded with boxes of chocolates,
bouquets of flowers and stacks of letters. The walls were papered with gifts
from grateful people.

- I was very nervous when I met her for the first
time, admits Bente, which was well received by the middle-aged lady, known
magazines and newspapers.

This was the beginning of a long collaboration and
friendship. For more than 20 years followed Bente the psychic work and set
up as a professional assessor when Westerlund helped Bergen police in
disappearance cases.

Elves became Anna Elisabeth confidential. On many
occasions she visited the psychic in her apartment, put her in the chair or
the edge of the bed and listened to her stories. Most often, it was one-way
communication:

- While I was familiar with her world, she knew
little about mine. She had so many fates at first hand. My life had she not
enough profit. But we had a good tone, and it was interesting to listen to
her, says Bente, originally Danish.

Isdal case

Having published his book "Psychic" in 1968 and had
stuck ask gap in Allers, was Anna Elisabeth Westerlund earnest country
known. She was keen to be taken seriously and would prove the actual
discovery that what she saw was true. Therefore, cooperation with the police
very important to her. On the other hand, police in Bergen also tremendous
respect for Anna Elisabeth, although on several occasions kept hidden from
the media that they used her. It was not quite "clean room" to work with a
psychic person.

- What made the biggest impression on you?

- Increase In Cases! There were cases where the
police were entirely destitute, as the case from Isdalen in 1982. May Britt,
a young woman of 22 years, disappeared from a psychiatric ward. She was
clamouring over the Nordic countries, but there was no sign of her. Anna
Elisabeth cooperation with the police, and I was even with the exploration
campaign. We found her clothes in the Black poem by Anna Elisabeth's manual.
In retrospect, I have discussed the matter with the head of the police
department after the increase. We understand it's simply not. Had we any
testimony that pointed to Svartediket but Anna Elisabeth had seen a cross on
his map and said we should go down there. Where were her clothes, but May
Britt we never found. Anna Elisabeth had indications of what had happened to
her, but the police could not proceed with the case after information from a
psychic. She "saw" that the woman was running out of Isdalen, but not where
she was taken away, says Bente.

After clothing found reported a few youngsters as
witnesses. Same day as May Britt disappeared had the Svartediket spoke with
a young, naked woman, who asked for a blanket because she was cold. Inside
the bushes boys had also seen a man who had taken pictures of them. The last
thing the boys saw was the young woman walk naked along the water,
presumably to find his clothes.

- I am convinced that the woman is murdered. She is
not drowned in Svartediket, it is scanned. She could not have been naked on
the road, without having been seen by some, says Bente.

Later Anna Elisabeth vision. She saw lots of flames,
and thought it had with May Britt to do. The psychic was now certain that
the young woman was no more! The police never solved the case.

Psychics are not "machines"

- Many times did not visions forward, but it enjoyed
Anna Elisabeth not to talk about. She was quite vulnerable and faced a lot
of scepticism. But she often told and often about the times she was right,
says Bente, who think it is important to be aware that psychics are not
"machines" that sees everything:

Anna Elisabeth with a client. Photo: AEW archive

- There are very many things that can prevent clear
vision. Anna Elisabeth told that if she was tired or sick, or was surrounded
by skeptics, her psychic ability impaired. I think people think that it is
clear, the psychics get, but it's not. They can be very diffuse and it must
be interpreted by people who can. Anna Elisabeth had many successful cases
in Bergen. I think it was because it was a team that had experience in how
to work with each other. When she saw these visions, she was in a way
connected away from their own reality, so in retrospect she remembered not
always what she had seen. When we went on inspection day, she could say:
That was the house I saw! So I had to say no, it was not. The house looked
quite different in your view. She could be quite assertive, but I could play
the tape for her. Police were also careful to make notes. Then she had to
admit she had been wrong. Anna Elisabeth could say very direct things to the
relatives who were present, and they would not say if they were asked. She
exuded authority and was not always to be taken lightly!

Got yourself using

Anna Elisabeth took care not paid and were available
by phone at all hours. She had an uncanny ability and patience to listen and
help people in need.

- The times I was at her house, I remember the phone
rang almost continuously. "Why do not you go out socket?", I asked her once.
When she answered, with a smile: I hear the phone anyway! "No wonder she
felt tired of other people's problems, says Bente. She serves freshly brewed
coffee and fresh buns, while she continues to talk about the special woman

- Psychics have so many influences and weird visions
that enter. They see so many accidents, death and misery. For this reason,
one might be a bit special. They must also learn to master psychic truth.
Anna Elisabeth said that when she lay down at night, it was like going
through tough grass. She believed that the mind of anyone who needed her
help was a wall in front of the bed.

- Did you Anna Elisabeth for help ever?

- Once, but it was because she called me. She would
never call me privately. My husband and I had moved to an expensive
apartment. I had misplaced a check to cover the rent, and I looked
everywhere. So called Westerlund. She would only deal one point or another
with me, because I was going to Oslo, partly to visit Para Psychological
Company. Suddenly, says Anna Elisabeth, who had never been in our apartment:
Why are you so weird? I had to excuse myself and tell the check. Go down the
stairs, sit at your desk, put your hand into the bin on the right. Where is
it? I replied, slightly exasperated, that I had been on the shelf two, three
times and it was not there. But she was adamant. I did as she had said, and
I found the check, which had wedged itself in between something else, says
Bente.

Hand Analysis - Hand reveals all!

An enjoyable story

For many appeared Anna Elisabeth Westerlund as
modest, slightly secluded and quiet. This story may show a different side of
the psychic:

- Before I went to work, I took a visit to Hotel
Norway, where Anna Elisabeth always stayed when she was in Bergen. I would
drink your morning coffee with her, I thought it was a pity that she would
sit alone every morning. In addition, we often hit the evening, for such
investigation gladly took several days. We kept happy until midnight, but
then would the young investigators and police officers to the family home,
and we were supposed too early again in the morning. Anna Elisabeth was
awake, asleep almost. One day the old lady and told me how she had it after
we had gone home. She had been in the hotel bar, would relax and talk to
people. There were men she talked to, and age had no effect. She had a good
draw in men. She loved them and they loved her. She had an incredible
charisma, but so was the well with Marcello Haugen. He was fond of women,
and those with him.

Bente says with empathy and reveals that she is
their mother tongue intact. Danish can be difficult to understand, but this
time it's no problem.

Bequeathed brain

Anna Elisabeth also appeared as frenolog [a reader
of the skull]. She believed that traits could be read by the skull shape,
but she also used the soft parts of the face in its interpretation.

- Anna Elisabeth believed that a life of
concentration and regular use of the sixth sense, which she believed was a
physical sense, to put footprints in her temporal lobe. She asked me if I
could get some at the university to test her temporal lobe after she was
dead. There I asked our neurologists about, but they did not think they
would find anything. However, they would like to be there for her and my
research, but the assumption was that they had to look at the brain until 24
hours after her death. She died in the hospital, so it was possible to get
brain quickly for forensic institute. As expected, they found nothing, says
Bente.

Although she believes that Anna Elisabeth should
have been tested in life, and that she was the in and for itself many times
in the parapsychological company and elsewhere.

For Anna Elisabeth Bente always represented the
University of Bergen. She sat very appreciated this collaboration, which she
neither failed to mention in the media. She said it gave her extra
confidence externally.

The Ascension

Twice a year, invited Anna Elisabeth to party for
their friends. Bente was of course an obvious guest. It was the style of
these feasts, always with a celebrity as toastmaster, and live music. An
incredible contrast to the austere life she lived in the small apartment in
Oslo.

Anna Elisabeth held her own funeral "Ascension".

Photo: AEW archive

It aroused a sensation when she invited to her own
funeral. 60 people attended the party. Although she asked in a white
nightgown with its nightcap in lace:

- As early as mid 80s said Anna Elisabeth to the
media that she would soon die. She missed quite powerful enough. She was
sick a lot in that time and also had a hip replacement. She was angry with
the IRS and said she was fleeced in taxes. So she decided that she would
spend the money on the funeral, so she dropped to pay tax on that money.

It was a kjempedyr party, where there was spared.
She made a prologue that went on Ascension. But then she died still not, and
the following year she made a party where she "was raised from the dead,"
which she called "Resurrection".

This was Anna Elisabeth's spirit. She loved these
things. Ever since she was a child she played the cabaret and theater, says
Bente.

Lost faith

Anna Elisabeth claimed that she did not believe in a
life after death, why do Bente it was something illogical in "Ascension" and
resurrection:

- Anna Elisabeth was raised in a religious home. The
family went to church, and she was even confirmed. She read the Bible when
she was young, but it was as if something happened during the war. She
stated that there can be no just God when Hitler could do what he did. She
lost faith then, but got back into it in his old age.

After she had written the book Psychic, she
developed a theory of what the psychic was. She did not think that would
have anything to do with clairvoyance. She explained it in a scientific
language and claimed it was a physical sense.

- Do you even in life after death?

- No. And contact with the deceased, I think going
on inside people's heads, answer Bente.

- So you have not been visited by Anna Elisabeth
Westerlund after her death?

- No, I have not!

Elves pointing towards one of the windowsills in the
living room, where pictures of her dear departed from Denmark stands with
flowers and candles.

- I had a close relationship with my mother, and I
say hi to her picture every morning. But my relationship with my mother is
on the mental plane and in my memory reservoir, she emphasizes.

Abuse of abilities?

- Anna Elisabeth also went on a ghost hunt, but she
never said that she met the dead. She said she could go back in time and
meet people as they lived at the time. She could go back to Viking times,
but then it was she who went back and walked into the living world. It was
the way she said it!

Bente seems that the psychic used his skills to many
and indifferent things:

- Anna Elisabeth was even given the past years,
people called and said they had lost a ring or two hundred dollars on a bar.
Then she could be a bit brusque and say: Do you think you should bother me
with it? In that way she could be a bit uncomfortable! When I look at all
the letters, I see that it is someone she did not answer, but she always
responded to letters from children and young people, who spoke of family
problems. It was because she had been misunderstood as a child, for example,
could the adults say that her psychic abilities were only fantasy. She was
not believed by his family, except maybe his mother. She was very keen that
we should listen to the children, listen to their problems, and if they said
weird things, it could be that they just had the strong intuition that
adults have. She had no children of my own, but had several Godchildren and
she loved children!

Arvegods

Anna Elisabeth wanted Bente to write a book about
her, why was the Elves who had bequeathed all her private papers, letters
and photos:

-I was touched when Anna Elisabeth gave me this
chest that had belonged to her mother, says Bente

- I was tasked to clean out Westerlund apartment
after her death, and she left behind a very large letter material, letters
she had received from around the country for many years. When I was deciding
the photos to the book, it was probably almost a thousand of them, so I came
to look at the dresses she wore in the photos. I noticed that she had the
same dress for 20 years, so it was a hopeless task to judge when the
pictures were from, says Bente, who also was tasked to clean the apartment.

- In a narrow closet hung the dresses I had seen all
year. When she held their feasts, she would want people to dress up, but
even she ranged between two simple dresses she had sewn. But she rented mink
tola, for I have found the bill.

- What have you done with the dresses?

- I could not remove anything from her apartment,
except that she had bequeathed to me. I was very touched when I inherited a
gold chain and a beautiful Russian silver belt, as Anna Elisabeth was so
proud of. It was a gift from her favourite uncle. Moreover, a block list,
which has been passed down on the female side of the family. Her mother used
to put children's clothes in the coffin, says Bente and shows the special
chest with neat, white-painted initials.

A miracle?

The rest of Anna Elisabeth assets accrued Norwegian
Association of the Blind and young chess players:

- She was a passionate chess player and thought that
chess sharpened brain and senses. She believed that all young people should
learn to play chess, so they could be more quiet together. Then there would
be far fewer divorces in our country, says Bente and shows the book which
she joined in 2009: Anna Elisabeth Westerlund. A tale. The book is a
startling picture of the funeral of Westerlund:

- When the photographer showed me pictures of the
funeral ceremony, were two of 24 who excelled. The coffin stood two large
candelabra and candles burned in the flames that were in opposite
directions. The photographer remembers the camera behaved strangely. It
suddenly began to take pictures of themselves. Close friends also told me
that they had had special experiences, including the chapel curtains moved!

- Do you think it was Anna Elisabeth's way of saying
goodbye on?

- No, answer the researcher cash, but she still did
not think the image was manipulated, the photographer was so afraid of it.
Elves had left in photo 15. She would not go out with it, because she knew
it would create reactions.

In retrospect, it was a great deal of media
discussion, where people tried to explain the picture. Several photographers
gave a seemingly logical explanation of the image and said it was a
perfectly understandable picture.

- When a photographer says that technically it could
be possible to take such a picture, then I think the it is strange that the
young photographer who took the picture in the chapel did not know, think
Elves, who admits that she thinks it is a strange picture. Anna Elisabeth
said it would be miracle at her grave, not her chest. I do not know if
people have experienced miracles at her tomb, she adds.

"On hold" after death

Bente says she was forced to postpone clearing and
settle the estate of Anna Elisabeth's death, because she had on a trip for
work. One day she got call from her daughter, who said she had received
several phone calls from a stranger. He told me he night after night had
been contacted by Anna Elisabeth Westerlund, who said that the Elves as soon
as possible to continue with the cleanup of the estate. This delay had done
that Westerlund had landed on an "intermediary" and did not come forward
before the clearing of the estate was finalized.

This man did not know any of the people involved,
and he had not experienced any supernatural phenomena previously. Now he
would release more of this and hoped therefore that it was settled in the
estate as soon as possible. Bente decided to cancel the flight to continue
cleanup efforts

Importance of documentation

- Do you believe that everyone has psychic abilities
in themselves that they can develop?

- There has been little research on this stuff.
Westerlund told that everyone was born with a sixth sense, a kind of strong
intuition, which presumably can be developed, responding Bente, who believe
that it is very much amateurish in this industry:

- There are many who claim they are psychic, which I
believe are psychic at all. They may have some experiences they can not
explain, but you will find very few of the really big, psychics as Marcello
Haugen and Anna Elisabeth Westerlund. I must admit that I have experienced
some things that I can not understand, and which I can not explain the basis
of my scientific understanding, but it is important to document these
phenomena, and it is one of the reasons I spent so much time to work with
psychics and written a book about Anna Elisabeth Westerlund. It could be
that a research at a later date explaining more than we can today.

- Do you miss Anna Elisabeth?

- She had a long and exciting life. It's been a long
time since she died, so I can not say I miss her. But I often think of her.
She has meant a lot for my research. I have great respect for her and for
the great support system she did. And I got to hold her, says the Danish
researcher.